


A Small Surprise

by letterfromtrenwith



Category: Poldark (TV 2015), Poldark - All Media Types
Genre: AU, F/M, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 22:04:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17374082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letterfromtrenwith/pseuds/letterfromtrenwith
Summary: George has a gift for the children.Pure fluff.





	A Small Surprise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jolecia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jolecia/gifts).



> This is set in the same AU as my fic 'From Her Ashes Risen' but you don't need to have read that to understand this one.

 

"Who's my beautiful boy, hmm? Yes, you are, you are." Nicholas giggled and kicked his legs in delight at Elizabeth's praise, or perhaps at the way she held him high up in the air for a moment after she lifted him out of his cradle. Lowering him into her arms, she cuddled him close, kissing his little cheek and inhaling the soft baby smell of him. As she carried him back across the parlour, she felt a tiny hand grip the material of her dress at her shoulder and smiled.

 

Swaying him gently from side to side she looked down at the rug, debating how best to pick her way across it back to her chair, considering the array of children and toys scattered across it. In the end, she settled for edging along the side of, narrowly avoiding stepping on a small wooden elephant, which was snatched out of the way just in time by Ursula.

 

"Be careful, Mama!" Elizabeth slightly suspected that she was more concerned for any potential injury to the elephant than to her mother. Ursula returned to the creature to its fellows, who were busy climbing the mountain of a half-open book. Perhaps Geoffrey Charles had been telling her tales of Hannibal again.

 

"Look, Mama!" It was not Ursula who had spoken this time, but her cousin, John Conan, who was showing his mother another small animal, this one different from the others. A felted seal, made for the children by their housekeeper, Bridget. "A seal!"

 

"Yes, my love! Do you remember where we saw the real ones?" Morwenna had leant forward to look, careful of her own baby son, Albert, who dozed on her lap. He had been born just a few weeks after Nicholas, the old matrons of the district whispering behind their hands at the scandal of Morwenna standing up at his christening so close to her confinement.

 

"At Ga-wennor." The boy stumbled over the pronunciation of the cove's name, but Morwenna smiled proudly at him nevertheless.

 

"That's right!"

 

"We saw them too!" Valentine piped up, momentarily distracted from entertaining his two youngest sisters. Clare and Susannah did not like this, of course, Clare tugging on his sleeve indignantly.

 

"Again, again!"

 

"Oh, very well." With a much put-upon sigh, Valentine returned his attention to the toy he had been showing them. A small circle of card, with the bare branches of a tree drawn on one side and an array of blossoms on the other; when the ribbons attached to side were twirled, the card twirled with them so that the branches and the flowers appeared to be as one. Morwenna had shown Geoffrey Charles how to make one for Valentine when he was just a baby, and Geoffrey Charles in turn had taught Valentine the trick, much to the girls' enjoyment. At just three years' old, they were too young to learn themselves just yet, but no doubt they would in time. "See, the tree is bare, but now...it blooms!"

 

"Flower!" Susannah cried, laughing, her sister joining in. So enraptured were they that they did not notice the parlour door click open. Ursula did, however.

 

"Papa!" She scrambled over her toys - and very nearly John Conan - to run to George, gripping onto his leg when he proved unable to pick her up due to the basket he carried.

 

"Come, my love, let me show you all what I have brought you." Elizabeth shared a smile with him, knowing already what the surprise was. The children gathered around eagerly as George placed the basket on the rug, pulling back the lid. For a moment, nothing happened, and then a small nose peeked over the top, followed by a fluffy grey head.

 

"It's a puppy!" Clare got there first, but her exclamation of delight was soon joined by her siblings'. Valentine gently lifted the little dog out of the basket, laughing as the creature wriggled in his arms and licked his face. The others clamoured to pet the pup, who in turn tried to nuzzle and lick every hand at once.

 

"Be careful with him." Elizabeth warned.

 

"Her." George corrected with a smile. He had joined her, standing by her chair, reaching down to pat Nicholas gently on the head, the baby gurgling happily at him.

 

The children had wanted a dog of their own for some time. They loved playing with the coachman's sheepdog that guarded the horses at night, but ran around the stable yard with the children by day, and with Bridget's little terrier, the runt of a litter, bought from a pedlar for a few shillings. George pretended to be unmoved by their pleas, but a couple of weeks earlier had told Elizabeth that one of Cary's dogs was expecting pups and he intended to bring one home.

 

Valentine had put the puppy down and it was now scampering around the rug, from one child to another, snuffling and grumbling in excitment, wagging its entire body along with its tail.

 

"Mama, can we have a puppy?" John Conan looked pleadingly up at Morwenna.

 

"We will ask Papa when he comes back." Elizabeth had no doubt that John Conan would get his puppy if he wanted it. Despite only being the boy's stepfather, Frederick spoiled him entirely, as George had done for Geoffrey Charles. Morwenna was smiling down at her son, but Elizabeth did not miss the slight flicker of anxiousness in her cousin's face. Captain Yardley was only training with his regiment, but with the situation in Europe, it looked increasingly likely that marching orders could come any day. Frederick was an excellent soldier who had survived battle before, but of course that was no guarantee.

 

"What will you call her?" George asked the children, who all immediately began chattering over each other, which excited the puppy enough to start yapping along. This, in turn, finally woke baby Albert, who immediately began crying, setting Nicholas off fussing again. George - mildly alarmed at the sheer chaos his innocent question had set off - gently began to urge the children out of the room. "Come now. Why don't you take her down to the kitchens and see if Bridget and Polly can find her something to eat, and then you can take her in the gardens."

 

"May I go too, Mama?" John Conan looked to Morwenna, who nodded distractedly as she did her best to pry a fractious Albert's hand from where he had a tight hold on the neck of her dress. He hurried out after the others, who were still arguing about what to call the puppy, which was still squeaking excitedly as Valentine carried it away.

 

"Dear me." Elizabeth laughed, as George sat next to Morwenna on the sofa with a sigh. Albert had finally calmed, although he was still doing his best to undo the ribbon at her collar. The departure of his riotous siblings had also blessedly quietened Nicholas. She smiled at her cousin. "That is the chaos you have to look forward to, my dear."

 

"Oh, I certainly hope so."


End file.
